Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia
Presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has accused the Nigerian Government of conferring national awards to treasury looters but neglecting teachers who genuinely labour for the country.
“The Federal Government gives national awards to individuals who stole the country dry while failing to recognise the roles played by teachers in moulding the “leaders of tomorrow,” Obi lamented.
Mr Obi who spoke during the graduation ceremony of Pace Setters Academy in Abuja, on Saturday, canvased an increased budgetary allocation for education.
The LP presidential candidate blamed Nigeria’s backwardness on government’s poor attitude towards education due to poor understanding of the pivotal role of education.
According to Obi, “Education is the most important thing any nation needs.”
Speaking further, the former Anambra State Governor whose administration supported education said: “Education is the foundation of development.”
“If you don’t have an educated citizenry, you can’t have a healthy society. You can’t pull people out of poverty without education. This is because the more people you ensure get education, the more they would be able to pull themselves out of poverty.
“We can’t have 20 million out-of-school children and start to talk about development tomorrow. That is why we need to invest in education. During our campaigns, we said we will invest in public schools and private schools. We talked about having a budget for every child in a way that the budget for each child will be paid to their respective schools, whether private or public.
“As the governor of Anambra State, I didn’t have anything called private school because there is no private child in Nigeria.
“I equipped schools with computers and other necessary facilities. If I have my way, education will have the highest budget and teachers will be celebrated. They are the ones moulding the children.”
Obi regretted that Nigeria failed to recognise or celebrate Mr Akeem Badaru, a teacher at St. Michaels School, Ogun State, who won Cambridge’s Best Teacher Award, beating 99 other countries.
“Many Nigerians did not know. We are busy giving national awards to those who stole the country dry,” Obi regretted.
